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Lafayette not planning citywide spraying despite new evidence of West Nile

City officials say two more mosquito pools have tested positive for virus

By Mitchell Byars, Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
07/30/2013 08:22:45 AM MDT

Updated:
07/31/2013 10:20:40 AM MDT

Mark Roehr, of Colorado Mosquito Control, checks the waters of Waneka Lake in Lafayette for mosquito larvae on Tuesday. Mosquito pools near the lake have tested positive for the West Nile virus, but Lafayette officials are not planning citywide spraying. (Anthony Sandrin / For the Camera)

West Nile virus

West Nile virus can cause mild to severe illness, including fever, extreme fatigue and head and body aches. It can also lead to chronic disability, including tremors, vision loss and paralysis.

Health officials in Boulder County encourage residents to use insect repellent, dress in long sleeves and pants, avoid the outdoors from dusk until dawn, and to drain standing water.

Two more mosquito pools in Lafayette have tested positive for West Nile virus -- the third positive test the city has seen this month -- but Boulder County health officials said there is no reason yet to conduct the kind of citywide spraying recently seen in Longmont.

According to the city, a mosquito pool at Waneka Lake Park and one near Rothman Open Space at North Finch Avenue and Baseline Road both tested positive for the virus this week.

A mosquito pool at Waneka Lake Park also tested positive at the beginning of the month.

Colorado Mosquito Control will once again conduct mosquito spraying this week. The company is scheduled to spray Waneka Lake Park after 10 tonight and is planning to spray the area between Gough Avenue and Finch Street north of Baseline Road after 10 p.m. Wednesday.

A Phat Daddy concert scheduled for Wednesday night at Wankea Lake has been moved to Festival Plaza at Public Road and Chester Street.

Lafayette officials said that despite the two new positive tests, overall mosquito numbers are down.

Officials at Boulder County Public Health said while it they still are waiting on some more recent test results, they have not made any recommendations to Lafayette to do citywide spraying as they did with Longmont earlier this month.

"We're not seeing the same level of conditions we saw in Longmont," said Lane Drager, a consumer protection coordinator with Boulder County Public Health. "We're not in a place where we are making emergency spray recommendations."

Drager said the county's recommendation for any citywide spraying stems from a "continued high vector index." That's the ratio of West Nile virus positive-testing mosquito pools collected from traps to the overall population numbers of the Culex mosquitoes being caught in those traps -- the species whose females' bites transmit the virus.

This past week, Drager said, 71 mosquitoes were caught at the Waneka Lake site, but only 27 were Culex mosquitoes.

Officials are encouraging residents to use insect repellent, dress in long sleeves and pants, avoid the outdoors from dusk until dawn, and to drain standing water.